Try It. You'll Like It.

Handing out 'freebies' can win lots of
new
customers -- or it be an expensive fiasco

By

Dale D. Buss

Updated Sept. 27, 1999 12:01 a.m. ET

By now, the story of Three Dog Bakery has become well known in entrepreneurial circles: Two canine lovers from Kansas City, working out of their basement, parlay their idea for fancy bakery treats for pooches into a national phenomenon, open dozens of stores, sell millions of fancy dog biscuits, write books, launch a cable-TV show and land in advertisements for American Express.

Less known, however, is the fact that the company could get hardly anyone to buy its products until it began giving them away at a dog show a few...